Greece: the Pope too calls for legal status” “

The Pope too has backed the Greek Catholic Church that for years has been pressing the government to recognise its legal status. The lack of such status causes – as the official website of the Catholic Church underlines – “numerous problems”. By making this request, “the Catholic Church claims no privilege, but equality”. The Catholic […]

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Austria: the bishops’ assembly” “

The Austrian bishops met for their spring plenary assembly at Lambach from 7 to 10 March. The issues on the agenda included the 60th anniversary of the birth of the second Austrian Republic, overseas aid, and WYD in Cologne. In recalling the birth of modern Austria, the bishops, in their final communiqué, underlined the Church’s […]

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France: faith and culture at the heart of Paris” “

“What do we propose? A series of artistic and cultural events in the Parisian quarter of Marais and its environs, expressing the link between beauty, humanity and spirituality”. The so-called Marais Chrétien is a group that works in the French capital under the aegis of the municipal administration and of the archbishop. For the eighth […]

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Holland: Catholics and globalization” “

The significance of human dignity in a world undergoing globalisation is the theme of “Globalisation and Human Dignity”, a book in English presented in The Hague in recent days. The book was commissioned by the Catholic organizations “Radboud Foundation” (which will be celebrating the centenary of its foundation on 12 November 2005) and “Katholiek Netwerk”. […]

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Dialogue and solidarity” “

In recent months, apart from the mobilization of humanitarian aid for South-East Asia and various ecumenical projects, as reported by SirEurope, the issue of church-state relations has bulked large in the agenda of numerous Bishops’ Conferences of Europe. Below we give a summary of the last number of “Litterae communionis” published by the Ccee. ALBANIA: […]

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Why the Church speaks” “

First a press release of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to publicly enunciate the values that the Catholic Church has at heart, in view of the forthcoming general elections (perhaps on 5 May). Then the appreciation expressed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor for the proposal made by Conservative leader Michael Howard that the time […]

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Drugs: ever more women make use of them” “

To mark International Women’s Day, the European Watchdog on Drugs (EMCDDA) has published a study, according to which ever more European women are making use of drugs. According to the watchdog’s experts, there has been a “closing of the gap” in Europe over the last few years, caused especially by a rise in drug use […]

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European trades unions for social rights” “

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has called a Euro-demonstration in Brussels on 19 March. Its purpose is to defend employment and fundamental social rights and to demonstrate against the so-called Bolkestein Directive on the liberalization of services in Europe’s internal market (a Directive which EU Commissioner McCreevy recently declared he was willing to amend, […]

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EU language dispute settled ” “

“After consulting the Foreign Press Association, we have decided to re-introduce translation in all languages, whenever possible, for the press conferences held on days other than Wednesdays”, said the spokesperson of the European Commission, Françoise Le Bail. The announcement effectively ends the dispute over the limitation to English, French and German for the simultaneous translation […]

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A European Institute for Equal Opportunities” “

The President of the European Commission Josè Manuel Durao Barroso and the Commissioner for employment and social affairs, Vladimir Spidla, announced in Brussels last week the creation of a new European Institute for Equal Opportunities between men and women (endowed with an overall budget of 52.5 million Euros for the period 2007-2013, to which will […]

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